? Only giving insulin once a day?

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Juliet & Diggy

Juliet & Diggy

Member Since 2016
The past few days Diggy's PM numbers have been low enough to warrant him not needing a dose in the evening. Then in the morning his levels are back in the 300s, so I give him his normal dose. Could this be harmful to him? Could he be bouncing? I just started a new job today so I won't be around to do a curve until Saturday, but if bouncing is the case I could try giving him a lower dose tomorrow and then see how he is in the evening to possibly rule out that possibility. It's just that it's too late to call the vet now, and they won't be open by the time I go in to work tomorrow. I just don't know enough about FD and insulin to know which would be worse: letting him potentially bounce or giving too low of a dose. Any thoughts or ideas?
 
What you should do if you keep getting Pre-shots too low to shoot is lower the dose

No insulin lasts 24 hours in a cat...their metabolism is too high, but especially Novolin since it's not one of the longer acting (and better) insulins for cats like Lantus, Levemir or ProZinc

You need to find a dose you can give every 12 hours

Now with Novolin, you can use a sliding scale (like if he's at 300, give 2 units...if he's in the 200's give 1.5, etc...) but those are just examples. I don't know enough about using Novolin to really guide you in suggesting a particular dose
 
Chris & China said:
What you should do if you keep getting Pre-shots too low to shoot is lower the dose
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Seconding what Chris says here.

If you start to see a pattern (more than the occasional day) where the preshot numbers are such that you can only give one shot a day, then reducing the dose may even out the numbers, help to lessen those steep blood glucose drops, and enable you to give two shots a day.

It is possible that there is bouncing going on, but there aren't mid cycle numbers for the past few days so we don't know how low his blood glucose dropped during the day.

Another possible reason for low evening preshots - especially when using a shorter acting insulin like Novolin - is that the blood glucose has been brought down to a level where the pancreas is able to produce a little insulin of it's own to extend the cycle. It's as if the pancreas is able to 'pick up the ball and run with it' for a time - until it gets tired, at which point the blood glucose will rise again.
If this is the case you may see a pattern where the numbers continue to drop a bit throughout the entire cycle, so that the lowest number may well occur at evening preshot.
The 'dropping and bouncing' pattern is different in that you'd see the lowest number earlier in the cycle, and then the numbers would rise from that point.

Eliz
 
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